Stamford LED lighting firm closes $39 million acquisition

Olivia Just

Updated 9:06 pm, Thursday, April 24, 2014

Revolution Lighting Technology, a Stamford-based maker of fiber optic lighting products, signs and displays, has branched out into multifamily construction with the closing of their acquisition of Georgia-based Value Lighting.

In the agreement, finalized last week, Revolution Lighting paid $10.5 million in cash and $28.1 million in stock for 100 percent of the outstanding equity of the Value Lighting business, according to a press release. Revolution Lighting expects to get an estimated $9 million working capital through the deal.

A 75-employee company based in Marietta, Ga., Value Lighting focuses on supplying lighting solutions to the multifamily residential housing sector. This provides access to a new market for Revolution Lighting, which creates LED lighting solutions, primarily for industrial and commercial markets.

Multifamily homeowners are using between 2-5 times more energy than needed to operate their lighting, according to Martin Magida, managing director at Carter, Morse & Matthias.

"It looks like a shrewd transaction," Magida said of Revolution's acquisition. "There's a huge potential for multi-family property owners to achieve significant savings."

Multi-family construction is expected to grow, according to research conducted by Reis, a provider of commercial real estate market information. New completions this year in the top 82 U.S. markets are expected to reach well above the long-term historical average of about 120,000 units per year. For 2014, new completions are estimated to total around 164,000 units, according to Reis.

"We are excited to close this strategic and complementary acquisition, which will allow Revolution Lighting to penetrate new markets, including the fast growing multifamily residential housing sector, and further accelerate our overall growth as a company," Robert LaPenta, chairman and CEO of Revolution Lighting, said in a statement.

Traded under the symbol "RVLT" on Nasdaq, the shares closed unchanged at $2.93 on Thursday.